The field of the invention is numerical control systems, and particularly, numerical control systems of the type which employ programmed processors as the means for carrying out the numerical control functions.
Such a numerical control system is known in the art as a computer numerical control or "CNC" and they are characterized generally by their use of a programmed minicomputer or microprocessor in lieu of hardwired logic circuitry. Such a system which employs a programmed processor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,038,533 which issued on July 26, 1977 and is entitled "Industrial Control Processor System." Although CNC systems are programmable and do therefore offer a certain amount of flexibility, as a practical matter the system program which determines the basic operational characteristics of the system is seldom altered once the system is attached to a specific machine tool. For example, the CNC system may be programmed to provide full contouring for a three-axis milling machine without automatic tool changer and with certain "canned cycles." That software system is usually not altered during the life of the machine despite the fact that for much of the time the machine tool may not require contouring capability and could make better use of the memory space occupied by the circular and linear interpolation programs.
The flexibility afforded by the use of a programmable processor in a numerical control system has thus never been fully realized in prior systems.